Company Profile
ArtCenter College of Design
Company Overview
Founded in 1930 and located in Pasadena, California, ArtCenter College of Design is a global leader in art and design education. With a current enrollment of approximately 2,100 students (52% female and 48% male, representing more than 40 countries), the College has a student/faculty ratio of 9 to 1. ArtCenter offers 11 undergraduate and seven graduate degrees in a wide array of industrial design, visual and applied arts disciplines, as well as a joint MS/MBA program with the Drucker School of Management and a minor in Social Innovation through the Designmatters program.
In addition to its top-ranked academic programs, the College also serves residents of the Greater Los Angeles region through a highly regarded series of year-round educational programs for all ages and levels of experience. Throughout the College's long and storied history, ArtCenter alumni have had a profound impact on popular culture, the way we live and important issues in our society.
ArtCenter is a private nonprofit fully accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) and the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD). Renowned for both its ties to industry and social impact initiatives, the College is the first design school to receive the United Nations’ Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status.
Company History
Like many ideas emerging from ArtCenter during our 85-year history, the very concept for such a school was visionary.
Edward A. “Tink” Adams was an advertising man with a radical idea in education: to teach real-world skills to artists and designers and prepare them for leadership roles in advertising, publishing and industrial design. To achieve that, he would create a faculty of working professionals from those fields. ArtCenter opened in 1930 with Adams serving as its director.
The viability of the idea he and a small group of colleagues launched was quickly proven. Even in the midst of the Great Depression, ArtCenter graduates quickly found employment.
In the years since, the caliber of our faculty and visiting artists has been extraordinary: Ansel Adams taught photography here; on a visit to campus, Keith Haring painted a mural; science fiction author Bruce Sterling was the College's first "Visionary in Residence." Our alumni include many of the world’s leading car designers, contemporary filmmakers (Man of Steel, Transformers, The Vow), ad makers (“Thatsa one spicy meatball,” “Got Milk?”), concept illustrators, (The Avengers, Star Wars), artists (The Blue Dog), product designers (Apple monitor, Oakley Zeros, Kikoman soy sauce dispenser) and others who have shaped culture with their talents and vision.